MINNEAPOLIS, June 27, 2008 - If you don’t have an electronic health record system, you better get one.

That was one of the messages in a plan released by the Minnesota Department of Health Thursday.

The plan is the state’s first attempt to say how it will reach its goal of creating a statewide health information network that will allow providers to seamlessly share patient records by 2015.

The 112-page plan was put together by the Minnesota e-Health Initiative, which is a public-private partnership of health care leaders who have joined together to accelerate the adoption of health information technology in Minnesota.

The plan says that for Minnesota to achieve its interoperable goal, its health care providers need to take the following steps: adopt an EHR, implement it effectively, and be ready to electronically exchange information with other providers

“Those who have not yet begun to plan or select an interoperable HER system must begin immediately, since it typically takes at least three years for a successful clinic implementation and longer for a hospital,” according to the plan titled, “A Prescription for Meeting Minnesota’s 2015 Interoperable Electronic Health Record Mandate.”

The plan includes a practical guide for implementing EHRs (page 62) and a guide about EHR standards (page 104).

The Minnesota Department of Health released the plan Thursday at the Minnesota eHealth Summit in Brooklyn Park, which focused on the state’s efforts to meet the 2015 interoperable health record goal mandated by the Legislature.

The keynote speaker at the event, Carolyn Clancy, M.D., director of the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, said Minnesota will serve as an important test case.

“If it can’t work in Minnesota, I don’t think it’s going to work,” she said.

She said the goal of implementing EHRs is to create an information-rich, patient-centered environment “that helps you know for the patient in front of you, what’s up, what are the specific needs, what do I need to watch out for, and where am I dropping the ball.”

However, she said that for health care providers to benefit from EHRs, they need to redesign their processes.

If the U.S. implements effective, integrated, electronic health information systems, Clancy believes, it can consistently deliver high, quality care.

“I see no reason why this country can’t be number one in both innovation and reliability,” she said.

In the quest for EHRs, Minnesota’s large hospitals are furthest along and nursing homes and public health departments having the most work to do, according to the report.

About 32 percent of nursing homes in the state use some form of electronic records, according to Stratis Health survey.

Clinics have better adoption rates. In 2007, 62 percent of adult clinics surveyed had partially or fully implemented an EHR and 24 percent planned to do so within two years, according to a Stratis Health survey.

Other state EHR mandates:
• All EHRs acquired by health care providers must be certified by the national Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) or its successor, if a certified EHRproduct for the provider’s particular setting is available.

• The state must establish uniform health data standards by 2009.